


Throwback

by Warpony



Series: Feral Echoes [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Homebrew Content, Origin Story, Past Gladiator, past enslavement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23753215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warpony/pseuds/Warpony
Summary: On the route to Zadash, Brunnera tells the Nein about his past, kidnapped and sold to the String.* * * * *Part of a larger WIP involving a D&D Original Character and the Critical Role Mighty Nein. Will eventually become current with C2E99 and branch away.
Series: Feral Echoes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1711534
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	Throwback

"He's an Alpine Firbolg." Caduceus hummed softly as he filtered tea leaves into the boiled pot.

"Alpine?" Fjord repeated, looking passed their campfire to where Brunnera and Beau were playfully sparring with each other in the last of the fading light.

The monk and fighter easily dancing around each other and making light, unarmed strikes with arms, fists, legs and feet. Brunnera kept his tail wrapped tightly around his thigh, keeping things fair. Beau was extremely competitive by nature; Brunnera wasn't competitive in the slightest. They balanced each other well and the practice of forms and movements between them had yet to get aggressive.

"Or Timberline. What my mother called them. One visited us once in the Blooming Grove when I was very young. I don't remember his name but he was kind and quiet. And very large. But I was a child so he may have only seemed larger because of how small I was at the time."

The rest of the Nein couldn't help smiling a little but stayed quiet, often the best way to go about encouraging Caduceus to keep talking was staying silent. 

"They're from high mountain forests, much colder and harsher regions." Caduceus continued, turning to their soup pot as the tea seeped. 

"That's why he's so fluffy and fuzzy?" Nott asked, looking up from where she was braiding Caleb's hair. 

"He has a mane almost." Jester chirped. "On his neck."

Caduceus nodded, "Keeps them warm in frigid climates."

"Do they have innate magic? Like you? Brunnera has said he can't do magic at all. Turn invisible. Talk to creatures." Caleb asked curiously. 

"They do. I think that his lack thereof has more to do with his history... or that collar." Caduceus reasoned thoughtfully, "Mother said they were the 'oldest' of us. Much uchanged from the first firbolgs. They stayed deep in isolation while others ventured into the wild places beyond the snowpack. Kept their fur, their tails, kept that bit of muzzle like Brunnera's got, stayed more like our ancient giant cousins. I remember our visitor telling us stories about hunting mammoths and fighting saber cats and winter wolves. Brunnera's very much a textbook example of what my mother told us and what I remember. Except he's small. Very small."

"Duceus he's a few inches taller than you if he stands up straight!" Fjord protested. 

The cleric nodded, "The Alpines could be ten feet or so."

"Ten!?" The Nein echoed. 

Caduceus smiled a bit sadly, "He's not told us but I believe Brunnera has been... stunted. Like a seedling without light or water-"

Down the slope a bit Beau let out a whoop as he leapt onto Brunnera's back and the fighter loped jovially in a wide loop around their camp, giving the monk a piggyback ride. Beau made a racket the whole ride around, Brunnera grinning and trying to mimic a galloping horse. 

"I think tonight we should ask him to tell us his story." Caduceus decided firmly as he started to pour out the tea then fill bowls to pass around. 

"Beeeaaauuuuuuuu! Brunneraaaa!" Jester called down to where the fighter was spinning in place, trying to make Beau dizzy. Without missing a beat the firbolg fighter turned and ambled up to the fire, carrying the monk on his back the whole way. He bent to let Beau down to the ground before moving over to sit next to Nott and Caleb. He took an offered bowl and cup from Caduceus with a soft 'thank you'. 

"Have fun?" Caleb asked with a smile.

"I always have fun," Beau smirked. Brunnera chuffed and nursed his soup from the edge of his bowl. 

"Brunnera?" Caduceus asked as he sat next to Fjord. "Would you be willing to tell us of your life? Before?"

The bay roan fighter's ears swayed back a bit, head dipping so the lengthening cerulean hair fell into his face. He was still before giving a little nod, taking a last sip of his soup before offering it to Nott. The goblin snagged the bowl without hesitation.

He set his hands in a twisted knot in his lap and cast his eyes towards the fire, heaved a sigh. "... My clan... lived high on... on the mountain.... Just us... away... nomads... in the... forest... ice meadows... Mon... monsters came..."

"Monsters?" Beau prompted, all of the Nein sat listening intently. "What kind of monsters?"

"... Men."

"Humans?" Caleb prompted quietly.

Brunnera nodded, his ears pinning. "Ba... very bad men... they took us... the young... killed the rest... my mama... my sis... sister... they fought...I saw it..."

The fighter shook his head. 

Jester reached over to set a hand on his forearm. Brunnera gave the sapphire tiefling a wane smile. "Its... better... they... died on... the mountain... home."

"These men came and took the young ones from your clan. Then..." Fjord gently encouraged. 

"Put... in a cage.... Took us so... south... took more... more little ones... all different kinds...all along the way..."

"Stealing children." Nott hissed harshly. 

The fighter nodded. "...Never stopped... just stole us... went south... some were... sick... died...didn't feed us..."

"They didn't..." Beau fell silent as Brunnera huffed.

"We... we were livestock... they _ate_ us..."

The silence that followed the statement was sickened and horrified. 

Brunnera sighed, his tail coiling around himself into his lap. He absently tugged on the plume of silky, blue hair at the end.

"... took us... to the colosseum... put us in... a cage... underground... could hear... the mob... screaming... excited... took us... to the pit... beast bait... one at a time... They put me... in with an... an owlbear... it was supposed to eat me... for sport...But it was sick... and old... starved... it broke the fence... I remembered... stand on a spear... let it charge... I killed it..."

"You were kidnapped and thrown to an owlbear and you killed it?... How old were you?" Fjord swallowed tightly around the question. 

Brunnera hummed looking skyward. "Mmm.... ten? Ten."

"You were lucky." Beau muttered. 

Brunnera choked out a startled, bitter laugh and muffled it behind his hands, staring at Beau with wide, blue eyes. "No!"

"Not lucky..." Caleb murmured. 

Brunnera shook his head, ears pinning, he lifted a hand to touch the blue sash hiding the heavy collar around his throat. "No... not lucky... I lived... they sold me... to the String... fighters and gladiators... they put the collar on... put me in fights in the pits...not lucky..."

"Couldn't the others see you were a kid?" Fjord set his tea cup down, it'd gone cold and untouched. 

"I was... I was big..." The fighter cocked his ears a bit, hoping his meaning came across.

"But... Cad said you're really... really small... for an Alpine..." Jester asked carefully. 

The fighter huffed a small smile, "Big before... big before the String... small after..."

"No place a child could thrive. Even under the best care." Caduceus hummed solemnly. 

"Mama... told me... once I'd be... big like old kings... I was bigger than my cousins... some of the String... pitied me... taught me to fight... use weapons... they said I was their... their be... their best... they'd never... sell me... won them to much coin... brought crowds... Put me in high stakes... To the deaths... big beasts... only came out... if you were all... all that was left...", the fighter looked down at his open hands, "I killed them all..."

Beau gripped his arm a bit roughly, even giving him a slight shake. "You survived. You had to-"

"Did I?" Brunnera asked back hollowly, the self-hatred dripping from the whisper. Beau hesitated, unsure how to respond. 

"Yes. You did. You have some fate waiting for you." Caduceus said firmly. "Someone or something needs you in the future. You would not have been forced to endure if it wasn't so."

The fighter cast an exhausted, sorrowful look towards the cleric, ears flicking anxiously.

"Brunnera... how long were you there?" Caleb asked. 

"Sixteen thousand seventy two days." He said firmly, speech a bit smoother that suggested he'd repeated that number over enough he'd memorized the sound and flow of it. "I counted..."

Clabe mumbled under his breath, math adding up, " _Schisse_... forty-nine years..."

Brunnera nodded. "... I was... an heirloom... on the String... like a cl... family clock..." 

"So that means, you're fifty nine years old?" Nott asked, she carefully moved over and motioned for the firbolg fighter to bend down a bit. Once he did so she started to braid his long blue hair back. 

"Still very young." Caduceus sighed sadly. "For one of our kin."

"How did you escape?" Jestser had pulled out her journal, scribbling a bit in it and sketching, though he attention hadn't wavered from Brunnera all through his story.

"The old ma... master... died... my second one... I was passed to the... son again... my third master... he was reckless... A big fight... Won more coin... more than normal... it was a hard fight... they had a prisoner... smuggled... from over the Ashkeepers... a Kryn drow... I felt bad for him... he was scared... angry... I killed him before they... could make... make him like me... it's the only mercy... only mercy I had to give..." He sighed, moving this way and that as Nott told him to, "...The master let everyone get... get drunk... celebrate... they didn't close the chain... forty nine years... before they didn't close the chain..." 

He shook his head but stilled again quickly when Nott gave the bovine like bridge of his nose a gentle swat to keep still.

"... I ran... stayed away from... towns... cities... I remembered... how to hunt... forage... we learned young... at home... I saw the slavers... with the little ones... I fought... Then you were there... and we fought together..." The firbolg fighter lifted his hands and shrugged, letting them drop again.

"We know the rest from there." Fjord said kindly. Brunnera smiled just a little and actually winked at him. 

The party was quiet, each lost in their own thoughts after the tale. The only sound Nott muttering softly as she combed through and braided Brunnera's hair, training it back in a long plait along the side of his skull, over his ear and down to the nape of his neck. The other half of his hair hanging loose. It created similar look to Caduceus' long mowhawk, simply missing the cropped under cut. 

The goblin gave his head a gentle pat after she'd tied it off and let Brunnera sit up again. "Is blue a common hair color for Alpines? That's what you are, right?"

He nodded then flicked his ears slightly. "Not common... not rare... Mama was a... a snowfur...They're blue..."

"A snowfur?" Caduceus cocked his head curiously. 

"Like the fox... and hares... brown in summer... white in winter...but always blue..." Brunnera's shrugged.

"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, Brunnera are you going to turn all white in the winter?!" Jester squeaked excitedly.

"I... can't... I don't remember... it hasn't been cold... always been south... it has to be cold..." Brunnera's cast his eyes down, ears pinned back again. 

"You guys! We have to take Brunnera some place cold this winter! We have to see if his fur turns all white!" Jester demanded, then stuttered and looked back to the firbolg fighter, "You'll stay with us until then, right? Until winter... at least? So we can all find out together?"

Brunnera carefully looked around at the Nein, looking for the same invitation in their faces. To stay... to come along with them passed Zadash...

"It would be very interesting." Caduceus agreed with a flick of his own ears. 

"Shit yeah. I totally wanna see a giant brown furball turn into a giant white furball. Who doesn't want to see that?" Beau grinned. 

The rest of the Nein murmured in agreement. Brunnera smiled a little, ducking his head humbly. 

"So you'll stay, right?" Jester prompted. 

The fighter gave a little nod, "Yes... yes please..."

**Author's Note:**

> Alpine/Timberline Firbolgs are a Homebrew firbolg variant that I have designed and been tweaking on D&D Beyond. The variant isn't posted to the public yet but hopefully will be soon! I'll drop in a link here whenever that happens! 
> 
> The eventual goal will be to get this series current with C2E99 then branch off. There will be plenty of 'fix it' content the further into the timeline is gets and eventually Verin Thelyss (Ref. _Explorer's Guide to Wildemount_ ) will be a heavily featured and centered character.
> 
> Thank you all for taking the time to read!


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